The Tragedy of Mr Hearn: An Imperfect Metamorphosis Omake
by ViktorChild
Summary: Mr. Hearn didn't like the sea much less sailing on an oil tanker, wanting the trip to end and be reunited with his family. But then, out of nowhere, a large portal suddenly opened sucking in the ship and him with it. What awaited him at the end of the portal was an eldritch abomination with its large maw wide open to swallow him whole. An unofficial Imperfect Metamorphosis omake.
1. Chapter 1

**SPOILER WARNING - this omake contains some spoilers on Imperfect Metamorphosis**

* * *

**The Tragedy of Mr. Hearn**

_Yukari's hands curled into claws. She slashed her right-hand forward, and several huge slabs rammed into Yuuka from the back, one right after the other. She kept the assault up, slowly forcing the monster toward the pit that contained the remains of the Skillet Plateau.  
_

_Finally, Yuuka was directly over the pit. Yukari seized up a chunk of granite the size of an automobile and filled it with as much kinetic energy as she possibly could. By the time she was done, it was literally shaking with pent-up force. Yukari sent it directly over Yuuka's head and brought it down with all the speed of a falling comet. Then she dropped the storm of stone into the pit, filling it beyond the brim._

_Yukari hovered in the air, staring with wild eyes at the heap of rocks. Her breath stuttered with fatigue and emotion. She didn't believe that she had finished Yuuka, not for one-_

_The heap literally collapsed in on itself, as if the bottom of the pit had fallen out. Yukari flew over to take a look. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw that a devouring maw and a tooth-lined gullet filled the entirety of the pit. The fragments of stones tumbled down its throat to be swallowed up. If Yukari had any doubts as to exactly what she was facing, this all but banished them._

_And then all along the edge of the things maw dozens of blood-red eyes opened to stare at her. The throat opened to let out a deafening roar._

_Yukari shoved her hand into the air, and gaps filled the sky._

_\- Imperfect Metamorphosis: Chapter 31 - Into the Storm, Part 4_

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**A/N:**

Nine years ago, while terribly bored at my desk job, I randomly searched for Touhou fanfics and I stumbled upon an interesting fic titled, 'Imperfect Metamorphosis' by an author who calls himself TakerFoxx. I read the first chapter and I was immediately hooked to the story for years. I read everything TF wrote and when I finally started getting around to writing my own stories, I sent him a pm telling him I'd like to write an unofficial omake dedicated to his Magna Opus story. Unfortunately, years of unworthiness issues and work stopped me from writing my tribute to IM for years. That is until I rediscovered that I once had an account in Tumblr and TF is still active there so I contacted him back and as promised, here's an unofficial omake to Imperfect Metamorphosis.

For any veteran Touhou fanfic readers who already read IM, this story is inspired by what Yukari does after that snippet above when she summoned a freakin oil tanker to throw at the Yuuka-monster. You might want to reread the chapter to refresh your minds.

Anyways, enjoy!

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**SIDE A**

Maribel, this is your father.

By the time you hear this recording, I will be dead. I will have ended my life, with every bone in my body broken, after throwing myself out of this window.

I've already made the necessary preparations for this recording to reach you at all costs. If for some reason you encounter men in black suits asking if I contacted you before my death, do not… I repeat, do not tell them anything.

My search for the truth behind our reality has earned me enemies all across the world hellbent on destroying me and my works. For the last twenty years, I've been on the run. I've been hiding from one place to another, not even staying in one hideout for an extensive period of time. I've always maintained one step ahead of these pursuers of mine, but now I fear I'm already running out of places to hide.

I beg you, read my journals after hearing this recording. I assure you, you are not in any danger, but just a precaution, please read them and know the reason your father left you and your mother twenty years ago.

I know that I am just a stranger to you, so please do not weep for me when I'm gone. I do not deserve your pity or even forgiveness after what I've done.

It is alright to despise me, I know. I will die knowing this is my price, my punishment for forsaking my family for a fool's errand.

But even so, you need to know the truth.

You, of all people, definitely deserve the truth.

Your mother… Mary…

She will never hear me out, and I totally understand. I can only imagine the pain and the hurt I have caused her from leaving her behind to raise you all alone. She deserves to know the truth as much as you do, my daughter, but I'm afraid she will never believe another word coming out from my lips.

Nevertheless, I love her still. It sounds wretched to hear it from me, I know, but I still love her nonetheless.

That is why you need to hear the truth.

Maribel… Let me tell you about the night the _USS_ _Ulricht Goodman_ disappeared.

…

…

…

It was a quarter past midnight. I could no longer recall exactly what I dreamt about, only faint memories of it, but it must have been terrifying for me to wake up screaming myself out of my bed. I had nightmares before, but not once did I ever had as horrifying as the one I had on this night. In fact, I did not even dare to close my eyes and risk reliving once more the horrors in my dreams.

I remember collapsing to the floor, gasping for breath as my throat constricted, blocking off air passing into my lungs. It was only fortunate that I managed to find my inhaler in time before my consciousness blacked out into nothingness.

I heaved and sucked in air greedily. The visions of monsters and endless days of suffering still lingered in my mind, and it took every inch of my willpower to calm myself down.

After a couple of minutes, my asthma subsided, and I could finally find the courage to stand. The terror wrought up by the nightmares had subsided. The furious beating of my heart had also quieted down. Now the only sound heard was the low hum of the ship's engine and the cyclical thrums of the propellers.

With my wits coming back to me, I remembered where I was. I was sailing aboard the _Ulricht Goodman_, a massive supertanker employed by the Oil company that I worked with. It weighed at three hundred fifty thousand metric tonnes, and its length was as long as the Empire State Building. A majestic giant built to transport crude oil from the Middle East to the thirsty cars and power plants in Australia.

Any boy who loves ships and sailing would be thrilled to be aboard the _Ulrich Goodman_, but I neither love ships nor the sea. I remember begging my superiors to spare me from sailing with the ship. I remember insisting at them to let me instead do my work on land as an operations analyst, but they just wouldn't relent. They needed someone with my caliber to personally assess the old ship if whether it could still remain a profitable venture, or if it's already overdue for the scrapyards in Bangladesh.

I would have refused them more, but it was your mother who convinced me to go saying that I needed a change of atmosphere, especially since I was stressing myself out for you were just born a few months before this fateful trip.

And so, I found myself aboard the _Ulricht Goodman_, sailing from Jeddah to Melbourne with my thoughts mostly about you and your mother.

For most of the trip's duration, it was unremarkable. Aside from the occasional rough nights sailing across the Indian ocean, there was nothing else to report. The sailors aboard took an immediate dislike with me mainly since I, too, am tasked with checking their performance if whether they needed to be retained or not.

They always tried to avoid me, leaving me to do my inspections as I pleased. Even in the mess hall, they avoided eating alongside with me.

It didn't bother me at all though… I am a loner… God only knows why Mary even took a liking with me. Still, with the crew actively avoiding me, it only made my work far more manageable. I could go anywhere aboard the ship without anyone telling me otherwise.

That was why, knowing I would no longer get any more sleep tonight, I decided to get out of my bed, get dressed, and advance one floor above towards the ship's bridge. Perhaps I could catch a sleeping crew on duty and add such an offense into their performance sheet. They may not like me, but I was adamant about showing them I was not someone who can be trifled with.

But I never got a chance to do my spiteful deed for even before I could climb up the stairs to the bridge, I already heard the sounds of screaming.

I remember my insides going numb. It was not a scream brought out by bouts of drunkenness or elated screams when one's football team manages to score a goal. The cries I heard that night were frantic and terror-filled. When I finally opened the door to the bridge, madness awaited me.

I saw men kneeling on the floor, screaming and wailing to the heavens, their expressions twisted in agonized terror. I saw the navigator clawing out his eyes out from his sockets while shrieking out obscenities at something outside.

The first officer, a Filipino by the name of Juan Dela Cruz, vomited streams of black bile, and in between heaves, I could hear him sobbing and praying to God for deliverance.

Pools of blood muddled the bridge's floor, and to my horror, I saw the helmsman lying on the ground dead.

The scene before me made me sick. I wanted to run … I wanted to go back to my cabin and bolt the doors shut.

What was happening? What madness had befallen on the crew?

The answer came suddenly when the entire bridge was bathed in a sickly purplish light, emanating from the outside.

The mutterings and the screams of the downed crew grew louder and louder, and even I could feel an incredible thrumming inside my skull that made me want to vomit. I ignore the screeching pain in my head as I walked closer to the window, my eyes transfixed at the phenomenon outside.

What I saw on that window would forever haunt my dreams for the rest of my life.

Maribel, there are things in this world that we humans are just not meant to know… things so unworldly, so fundamentally wrong, our minds simply couldn't comprehend them without losing our sanity.

What I saw on that moonless night was a portal… an opening to another dimension… to a world where the logic of the human mind ceases to exist.

I knew then and there why the crew lost their minds. No human being could stay sane after seeing what I've seen. Even now, after so many years, thinking about that place still makes me nauseous.

What I saw inside the grotesque wound of reality was an inverse world basked in a gradient of purplish light not meant for any mortal eyes to see. My irises burn just by looking at the wrongness of the place like I was staring directly into the sun. Creatures born out of a mad being's nightmares squirmed and crawled at the portal's boundaries while I watched impossible geometries forming and _unforming _out of existence inside.

Then there were the eyes… Thousands of large glowing red eyes, with slits of pure darkness, all appeared on the inverse fabric of unreality, like boils popping out of diseased skin.

They swerved in their flesh sockets, like uncontrolled gimbals, and they darted their gazes in all directions as if searching for something or someone.

The cries of the crew finally reached a crescendo, and I know I was only mere moments away from my inevitable doom.

Then, as if sensing the terror coursing through my veins, the eyes stopped moving before slowly shifting their focus to stare directly at me.

That was the moment I knew we were all going to hell.

Someone grabbed me by the back, and when I turned, I saw the first officer. His face all bloodied up, with vomit caking the sides of his lips. I yelled at him to let go, but he would not. Another crew came to subdue me, then another one, and another one, until finally, the whole miserable lot went after me.

I fought them all off with everything that I got. Everybody had gone insane, and they mumbled something like a language, but their every utterance sounded wrong and guttural.

I kicked, I punched, I even bit off the hands of the first officer, until finally, I was free. The door to the lower decks was blocked, so I bolted to the door nearest to me, which led me outside towards the bridge wing that extended outward from the ship.

I was crying as I went outside. Every bone in my body trembled with terror as the wind let out a damning lament. Even if I didn't know how to swim, I needed to get out… I needed to get as far as from the ship as possible, even if it means jumping off into the icy waters below.

Drowning seemed a better choice than whatever end awaited me inside the looming portal.

But before I could hoist myself above the railings, a pair of hands clawed at me, pulling me back on board

The sudden fall into the bridge wing's metallic floor left me dazed, and the First Captain didn't even give me any time to recover my wits. In his delirious state, he began pummeling me with his fists, hitting me in the face again, and again while shrieking out a word over and over again.

Yu-Ka-Ri…

Yu-Ka-Ri…

Yu-Ka-Ri…

I tried to get him off, but he already had his grimy hands wrapped around my neck, determined to squeeze the life out of me. My vision began to blur, and I could feel my lungs burning from the lack of oxygen. I figured this would be the end… Murdered before witnessing the insides of hell.

Perhaps this would be for the better, but before I even had the chance to commend my spirit to the Lord, fate spared me when blister-infested tentacles snatched the deranged First Officer away that sprouted out from the insides of the portal.

These unworldly tendrils took the still screaming Juan up into the air before splitting him up in two like some macabre pinata. Blood and entrails rained down upon me, and I would have also screamed in utter horror if I was not so mortified to do anything else.

Then, before I knew it, the ship entered the portal, and my fate was finally sealed.

I could hear the ear-shattering shrieks of the crew members inside, not out of sheer terror, but this time, out of ecstatic jubilation. In their madness, they welcomed damnation before a torrent of buzzing insects smashed into the bridge, devouring them all via a million eviscerating mouths.

It only took a couple of seconds before the swarm buzzed off back into the living walls, leaving me behind, shivering at the sight of the bridge all painted in crimson.

The ship began to accelerate faster and faster, deeper and deeper inside the portal. Thousands of blood-shot eyes glared at me, mocking me, laughing at me, who I was sure would suffer a much agonizing fate than the rest.

I tried shutting my eyes, to grant me blessed blindness from the wrongness permeating on this inverse world, but there was no respite to be had. The unnatural purplish light radiated in everything so my mind could still see even if my eyes could not.

The fabric of reality had been upturned, and all I saw was chaos, and _things _not meant to be witnessed by any mortal.

The journey inside seemed like an eternity. Time appeared like it no longer existed. I must have experienced countless lifetimes inside until finally, the living walls opened up, and I was back into the world of the living.

Except, this time, I was not in _our_ world, and the ship was not floating in the sea.

Like a siren dragging a drowning sailor deeper into the sea, gravity pulled the ship down immediately after we exited out of the portal. The ship lurched into reality, and then we were falling. The winds howled as we accelerated down, down, from unfamiliar skies into the ever fast approaching ground below.

I clasped my hands on the railings to keep myself from getting blasted off from the raging wind, praying to God for deliverance.

God gave me an answer, but his answer was the face of nightmares.

Below, waiting for me, was an abomination of pure malice. It hurt my eyes just to look at the thing, and I remember myself utterly paralyzed with fear. The creature resided inside a massive crater, and it oozed with slime and black ichor. It resembled a rotting jelly squirming in a saucer. It had a huge maw with rows upon rows of sharp teeth, and it had thousands of blood-shot eyes all looking to the sky.

Then, its maw opened wide to let out a deafening roar.

That was the time I finally opened my mouth and started screaming.

I screamed as I haven't screamed before.

They say when confronted with the inevitable, your life flashes in front of your eyes. That didn't happen to me. I didn't think of my past, of my mother, or my friends. It didn't even occur to me to think about Mary or you, as painful as I admit it.

In those dreadful seconds, only visions of pain and eternal damnation tormented my mind.

But then, as I fell closer and closer into the creature's gaping maw, I saw a glowing white being floating high above the monster.

My eyes locked on the radiant figure as I descended, and at the exact second when I passed at the being, I realized it was a woman.

It was only for a fraction of a second, but I saw her in her full magnificent radiance. She was beautiful beyond beauty. Her hair was a thread of gold, and her face was chiseled into pure perfection.

She was beauty incarnate, and I was even able to catch a glimpse of her sharp golden eyes where I saw both ruthlessness and wisdom in equal measure.

I knew then and there she was the one who summoned the ship into this other world to obliterate the monster roaring on the ground.

It was only for a fraction of a second, but the woman's eyes darted to stare down at me. She was already above me, and I was looking back at her. A second more and I'll be dead.

As a final plea, I raised my hands at her, to beg for deliverance, but she shook her head, and everything went suddenly black.

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**A/N:**

Years ago, I really enjoyed TF's Christmas specials. 'A Very Nineball Christmas' is still my favorite Christmas story. Now that TF has gone on to write his own novel, I might as well release this omake on Christmas day in honor of the tradition. Anyways, part 2 will be released on New Year's Day.

Merry Christmas to all!

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Originally published on: Dec 25, 2019.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Tragedy of Mr. Hearn**

**SIDE B**

The next time I saw the light was when I opened my eyes and found myself in a hospital in Sydney. Mary was by my side, and I remember her falling to her knees, sobbing when she saw me finally awake. She said that I was in a coma for a week, and it was a miracle that I survived.

By this time, my memory of the whole ordeal remained groggy, and I had difficulty remembering exactly what happened. Your mother and some men in black suits told me that I was the only survivor of the _USS Ulricht Goodman_, which exploded in some sort of fire near the coast of Sydney. I couldn't recall anything to give these men any valuable information, and Mary was simply glad that I survived.

I stayed in the hospital for a couple more days before I was discharged with a good bill of health. As far as the doctors were concerned, there was nothing wrong with me. Aside from a mild case of amnesia, they assured me that my memories would return in due time.

When we arrived back home, I almost dropped to my knees when I saw you sleeping in the hands of your grandmother. I remember being filled with intense joy, and I cried as I hugged you into my arms. I swore then and there that I would never leave you and Mary alone again.

Or so I thought.

Two months had passed. I was driving back home from the office when suddenly, I got a splitting headache. The throbbing in my brain felt like a pair of nine-inch needles were thrust into my skull. I couldn't breathe… My vision began to blur. It took all my willpower to drive my car safely toward an empty street as I endured and screamed from the unending pain.

I was trembling in my seat, my hands clutching the wheel like iron vise-grips, afraid to let go. I thought that I would die inside my car, but God had an even crueler fate waiting for me.

I now remember everything.

Like a box full of nightmares, I remember the hell that fell upon the crew of the _Ulricht Goodman_, the rapture within the fabric of reality, and the nightmare-fueled blob that almost swallowed me whole. The memories came rushing into my mind like a torrent. I begged the Lord for these awful thoughts to go away, but they only became even more vivid and surreal with each passing second.

I didn't go home that night. I wandered into the woods in a state of delirium, hearing and seeing things that were not there. Mary had to call the police to search for me, and they were able to find me the next morning crawled into a fetal position beside a river, mumbling all to myself.

We went back to the doctors who immediately said I was suffering from extreme stress and PTSD. I tried to tell him about the memories I recently regained, but he merely dismissed it as some form of _false memories_.

How could my memories be false? I didn't hallucinate anything, and I was fully aware of my sanity. The doctor soon tried giving me pills, but I refused to cooperate. I was not going insane, and I'm not lying to them at all. Mary was more compassionate to my plight than that useless quack, but unfortunately, in my rage to convince everyone of the validity of my story, I also lashed out at her.

For the next few months, I become even more miserable. It was a form of hell that no one would even consider I was telling the truth. Mary wanted me to meet other therapists and even a priest, but I scoffed at the idea.

On top of all this, I began to notice that I was being watched. At first, I thought I was indeed becoming insane, but then I realized there were indeed people watching at me… People who were always wearing black suits.

I remember back in the hospital that I was also being questioned by men in black suits, which, at that time, I assumed, were detectives. They always eluded my attempt to confront them, and they always seemed to stay barely in the peripherals of my vision before disappearing once more in the background.

One night, I told Mary about these men in black suits, but this time, she didn't believe me. We had an argument that escalated into a heated fight.

I didn't sleep with her that night. Instead, I slept downstairs in the living room, still ashamed I raised my voice at your mother. I decided I would apologize to her in the morning, but out of nowhere came another skull-crushing headache. I opened my mouth to scream, to call for help, but no sound would dare come out.

I could no longer continue living like this… I remember running towards the kitchen to grab a knife and finally end this torment. But then, as I felt the cold steel blade pressing on my wrist, I saw in my mind a woman in radiating white.

It was the woman I encountered back when I was falling toward the maw of the eldritch abomination. Her mouth was moving, and I realized she was speaking. This was not a memory. We never spoke. Our eyes only met the briefest of seconds, and yet here I was, remembering this vision as clear as any of my nightmares.

I froze. I closed my eyes and heard what she was trying to convey.

_Sorry._

One word. All she said to me was one word, but I could feel her utter remorse for dragging me into this terrifying ordeal.

I had every reason to be angry with her. She had scarred me and changed my life forever. If it wasn't for her summoning the ship to throw at that monstrosity she was fighting with, I wouldn't be in this position.

And yet, I couldn't find any fire within me to rage at her. I was not angry at all. Instead, I was fascinated.

I confess she captivated me. Did I fell for her? Was I in love?

No. To that, I can say with surety I did not. There's only one woman that I love, your mother. My obsession with this unworldly woman was something much more profound. It was not love or an unquenching lust… It was something else, like my very soul, my very being, needed to know more about her.

After that vision, I realized I needed to find her. I needed to move away from Mary and from you, and try to find this elusive woman or I would never be whole again. I couldn't move on with my life until I know her name.

I left you and Mary that same night. I left everything to pursue this obsession. I am indeed a fool… The greatest fool in history.

But I did find the truth behind our reality.

Throughout my journey, I immersed myself with occultic and hidden knowledge. I traveled all across the world, searching for clues about the true identity of the woman in white. To my fascination and horror, she was not the only supernatural being that existed in our world.

I've met individuals whose existence was an affront to modern science and secular society. I've met immortals who claimed to have lived for hundreds of years with the necessary evidence to back up their claims.

In the far-flung mountains of Romania, I met a vampire mistress who looked no older than a ten-year-old, but I suspect she was older in the magnitude of centuries. I even had the privilege of dining with her, and she laughed when I told her if I was to be the main course.

Deep in the bamboo forests of China, I've met a Kung-Fu master who had mastered thousands of years worth of ancient Chinese martial arts. The master was kind enough to demonstrate her skills, and with just one punch, managed to split a massive boulder in two.

I even met a real god from ancient Scandinavia now living in Indiana, swindling people for their money and faiths.

Of course, I also made enemies with various shades of evil. From cults of dead gods to secret cabals that work behind the curtains to manipulate governments all across the world. In my search for the woman in white, I stumbled upon hidden knowledge not meant for me to know, and their keepers were hellbent to keep me silent.

Then there were the men in black suits. They're an amalgamation of all the groups that wanted me dead. Somehow, they always managed to track me down even when I was moving from one place to another. They were relentless in their pursuit to end me, but I was always one step ahead of them.

Such was my journey… it brought me to all the far corners of the earth, and what I thought would only take me a month soon became a year. Then it became two. Then two years became a decade. Then a decade became two.

I've abandoned a life of happiness with you and Mary for a life of constant struggle and frustrations. I am a fool… I am a fool.

But now, dear Maribel, my journey has come to an end. After a long time of searching for the enigmatic woman in white, I finally found a clue about her earlier this year.

It was that swindling has-been Scandinavian god that told me of an immortal he met a long time ago that could control _borders _between multiple planes of reality.

My eyes lit up the moment he mentioned borders. I could remember a cold chill running down my spine when I heard him speak that word, and it took me a minute or two before I could gather up my wits to ask him back. I knew then, without a doubt, he was talking about the woman in white.

I pressed him further. I pleaded, begged, and even threatened him to tell me everything. It took me a sizable amount of bargaining to finally have this swindling god acquiesce to my plight, telling me to look for her in Japan.

_Japan?_ I said to myself. I'd been to Japan a couple of times during my search, and I always ended up with nothing. I spent two years in this country researching for clues, and all I got was the desire to seek elsewhere.

I was skeptical and initially didn't believe this has-been god. He must really think of me for a fool. However, he started getting annoyed when I didn't believe him. This only made him spill further information, telling me to look deeper into my bloodline.

And that was when I realized he was indeed telling the truth.

You see, my daughter, you, and I have a percentage of Japanese blood coursing through your veins. I don't remember telling Mary about my ancestry, but apparently, one of our ancestors went to Japan to research the culture of the place, and there he settled, married a Japanese woman, and started a family.

The name of our ancestor was Lafcadio Hearn, an American writer who had a deep obsession with Japanese culture. Our family was descended from one of his children who went back to America as an immigrant a hundred years ago.

I knew of Lafcadio before. I even read one of his books during the early years of my search, but I never found any clues that would lead me to the woman in white. With the confirmation of that has-been god, I went back to Japan from a circuitous route to derail anyone trailing me. I was adamant about looking even closer into the works of our ancestor. This time, I finally found what I was looking for.

Deep in the historical archives at Tokyo University, I found a barely readable letter in English written by a certain 'George Angell', a Professor of Semitic Languages from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. In the letter, the professor asked for clarifications from Lafcadio regarding a series of notes he wrote about an old Japanese legend talking about a hidden world somewhere in the _Yatsugatake_ mountains. The letter further requested Lafcadio to expound the symbolism he noted regarding different realities separated by _borders_.

Borders.

There it was again… The description of worlds separated by borders.

Throughout my search, I've come across different terms for the unworldly place the _Ulricht Goodman_ was sucked in. Some references called it the _Stygian Planes,_ the _Immaterium,_ the _Un-space, _and the _Un-time_. However, the far more familiar name to describe such hell was the _Borderlands_.

I remember my heart racing at this discovery. I scrounged further the archives for Lafcadio's response, or better yet, the notes Professor Angell was referencing, but couldn't find anything. Not to be deterred, I spent the whole summer of this year searching for related stories about mythical lands near the _Yatagatake_ mountain ranges. I spent days locked in the forbidden sections of the library, checking and cross-checking all documents I could find, and soon enough, I saw one name that kept on popping up.

_Gensokyo._

As the legends I read summarized it, Youkai, or mythical beings, freely existed alongside humans as recent as a few hundreds of years ago. However, as time passed by, humanity began to expand into Youkai lands. In their expansion, they brought with them their religions and traditions that threatened the very existence of these Youkai. Understanding the impending threat posed by humanity, a few of these Youkais banded together to form a pocket world outside of our own where they would continue to live in peace.

The legends called this mystical place _Gensokyo_ or _Land of Illusions_, and it was written that a portal existed somewhere in one of the shrines located in the _Yatagatake_ mountains.

By this time, summer had ended, and the leaves of Sakura trees began to wilt into different shades of gold. I immediately went to _Nagano _prefecture, which bordered close to the mountains in question. There, I continued searching for the portal, visiting all the hundreds or so active Shinto shrines in the area. I started looking at the more popular ones asking the resident priests for any clues or stories they might have heard about a gateway to another world, but all they gave me were blank looks or suspicious leers. I blame it on me being a _Gaijin_, or foreigner. I understand the peculiarity for someone like me asking people around in broken Japanese about _youkais_ and portals.

Nevertheless, I pressed on. I also combed through the local library for old newspaper articles about supernatural events. It was only through sheer luck and efficient use of online translation engines that I stumbled upon the curious case of a shrine family called the _Moriya_ family.

According to the article, this incident happened almost a year ago. It started when the head priest and priestess dying in a tragic car accident, leaving their only daughter to take care of their family shrine. A few months after the accident, the article mentioned the daughter started to act very strangely, like talking and arguing by herself as if conversing with an unseen entity. It was further reported that snakes and frogs began following her even when she was at school. The article ended with a note stating the daughter disappeared without a trace after she went to school, and all of a sudden, lightning bolts shot out from her hands. Her hair suddenly turned emerald green in front of her class.

I had a hard time believing the story, but it did arouse my suspicions, knowing it happened to a shrine family. Moreover, when I went to the daughter's school to continue my investigation, I found no teacher or student would even dare speak to me about the incident. Every time I raise the issue in broken Japanese, they pretend to not understand me, though I can see clearly in their eyes that they all know something about it.

Perhaps I was approaching this investigation incorrectly, but then a girl approached me saying she was a friend of the missing daughter. She appeared visibly distressed at the topic, and she would only speak with me in confidence. I acquiesced, and we talked privately inside a cafe where she divulged everything about the disappearance of her friend. She mentioned that her friend revealed to her that she was quitting school as she would embark on a journey to another world. The girl thought her friend was trying to commit suicide, and so she tried to stop her. Soon they had an argument that quickly escalated into a shouting match inside their classroom. As their quarrel reached into a crescendo, her friend began to transform. Her hair suddenly turned to green while bolts of lightning started zapping out from her fingers. Her friend's eyes were full of tears, and she lamented she could no longer continue living in this place. Before the girl could do anything else, her friend suddenly disappeared, in front of everyone, into thin air.

Fascinated by her tale, I asked her where her friend's shrine was located, and she told me it was situated in a mountain not far from their school. However, just like her friend, the shrine itself had also disappeared, leaving only the shrine's Torii gate to mark its existence.

I thanked the girl for telling me the story about her friend before taking my leave.

That was when I heard the sound of gunfire followed by bullets ricocheting around the cafe. People screamed as they duck for cover.

To my horror, a man in a black suit stood at the entrance with a gun in his hand.

After all these years, I shouldn't be surprised by the tenacity of these men, but the months of being entirely focused in my investigation made me complacent.

Nevertheless, I bolted out of the kitchen and into my car. I stepped on the pedal and then raced myself towards the shrine. A car chase soon ensued with those men in black suits in hot pursuit.

I refused to die at their hands. I refused to end my search, getting smothered when I was already this close to my intended goal.

Night had already fallen when I arrived at the Moriya shrine. Just as the girl said, the shrine temple was nowhere to be seen. The men in black suits were still on my heels as I run toward the only structure still standing… the Torii gate.

Just then, as bullets flew all around me, I saw a figure in long priestly robes standing on top of the Torii gate. I thought I was being cornered, but the figure raised its hands toward the gibbous moon, and then it disappeared. I shut my eyes, anticipating the figure would attack me, but instead, I heard screaming, and frantic gunfire as the figure attacked my pursuers one by one. The figure moved in a blur, eviscerating each one of them in a blink of an eye, painting her immaculately white robes in crimson.

After only a minute, it was over.

The figure stood amidst a sea of corpses. I realized that the figure was a woman from her slender and curved form despite wearing a max resembling a _kitsune_, or fox. At first, I thought she was the missing shrine maiden daughter, guarding the remaining parts of her shrine, but upon further inspection, she was far taller and more mature for the physique of a highschool girl.

I was about to address the figure when she spoke, she spoke with two overlapping voices.

And surprisingly, she spoke in heavily-accented English.

"Welcome traveler," I remember her greeting me. "You have journeyed far and wide all across the four corners of the world, and now you're here… Only but a step more before you reach your goal."

With her _kitsune_ mask, I couldn't tell what her true expressions were upon speaking those words, but her tone was neutral and ethereal. That was then I noticed this woman had ears of a fox, and behind her was a giant fluffy tail.

I realized then that this woman was not human but a youkai.

"I know who you seek," the fox-youkai continued. "You seek the Lady in White, the Keeper of Boundaries, She Who Sleeps…"

"You know her?" I remember exclaiming.

"She is my mistress," she revealed. "I am her servant, her _Shikigami_. I am in eternal servitude to her, my mistress, Yukari Yakumo."

Yukari.

At last, after twenty years, I finally found her. The words First Officer Juan screamed at my face when he attacked me now had meaning, and it was the name of the Lady in White.

I remember feeling euphoric like a great weight was taken away from my shoulders. At last, I could finally meet the lady that had stolen my life for two decades.

"Where is she then?" I asked her. "Where is your mistress? Can you take me to her?"

But then the fox-youkai shook her head as she bowed.

"It is true, you are only a step away from meeting her, but unfortunately, this is where your journey ends."

I didn't move, nor did I reply. I remember myself processing and reprocessing the Shikigami's words, searching for any hidden meaning to what she just said. Perhaps she had misspoken? Perhaps there was a loss of meaning in the translation?

But her words were very clear… as clear as the monstrosity that almost engulfed me back then.

I was about to be denied an audience with the lady in white.

"Why?! Why can't I see her?!" I remember demanding her. Tears pouring down from my eyes, knowing my long journey was about to end all for naught. "I have waited for this for so long, and I am to be told I cannot meet her?!"

"Peace, traveler," the damned fox-youkai replied. "My mistress conveys her apologies that it has to be this way. She knows you are searching for her for a good twenty summers, but your journey must end here."

I could never accept this. To be so close and yet so far. This was just not fair at all!

"Then at least you can tell me why ?" I asked her, knowing this could be the only answer I would ever get.

"Because my mistress is still recovering from her recent fight with a most terrifying monster." Then she added. "The same monster that was about to devour you if not for my mistress whipping you away to safety."

I stared at the fox-youkai absolutely dumbfounded. I remember my chronic migraine spiking up again after she said that.

"Your mistress was unable to defeat that thing?" I asked. "That thing is still alive after all these years?"

She shook her head.

"No, dear traveler. My mistress recently fought that eldritch abomination only yesterday. She defeated it but at a considerable cost of her very soul."

"Yesterday?!" I exclaimed. I remember almost shrieking the word. "But that fight happened twenty years ago!"

"The powers of my mistress are an enigma even to herself," she began. "She has dominion over the borders between illusion and reality as well as concepts, including space and time."

I didn't move. A sense of dread began to run down my spine.

"In your perspective, dear traveler, you have spent twenty years in search of my mistress after your chance encounter with her." she paused, drawing in a breath. "But the truth is, that fight only happened yesterday. In a fit of pure rage, my mistress summoned a ship with exceptional tonnage to hurl at the monster. However, the only ship she could think of with such magnitude was your ship, which she saw when she ventured out of _Gensokyo_ two decades ago."

"Inadvertently," she continued. "My mistress summoned a ship from the past, and I worry the ramifications might be if you are to meet her at all. Paradoxes involving time are usually unpleasant problematic."

"I spent two decades finding your mistress," I said. Tears pouring down from my eyes. My knees gave way as I finally understood at how much I lost, and so little I've gained. "I gave up everything… My life, my family for… for nothing?"

"Your journey must end here." the fox youkai said, her tone soft but final. "Go back to your life, Mr. Hearn. You are now free to choose your own fate once again."

And that was it.

My journey came to an end

There was no climax, only a huge letdown and two decades of regret.

The fox youkai said I was now free to choose my fate, but what else was there to do when I already burned all the bridges to a normal life?

And now, I am here at the topmost floor of this hotel, recording my first and final message to you, Maribel.

There's nothing left for me to do now. I was given a glimpse of the truth behind our reality, but like the horizon, the one person I was looking for was someone I would never meet.

If I've known this would be the end of this long and fruitless journey, I…

…

…

…

Heh, I'm indeed a worthless fool. If I've known the ending of this journey, I would still go and search for the lady in white, hoping that this time, it would have a different outcome.

It's already too late for me… I'm already a slave to my fate.

But the search doesn't need to end with me. I might not be the one to find the lady in white, but perhaps you can.

This is also the reason I'm trying to contact you and not your mother… To burden you with the truth and not Mary.

Maribel, I've read your blogs. I've read your research on the supernatural, and I'm indeed impressed at how much you got things right. Your article about vampires was spot on, considering I met one in my travels. I don't know if it runs deep in our blood, but I can tell we share the same levels of curiosity for the unknown.

If you don't want to follow in my footsteps, then burn this recording along the journal with it. If you do this, you will forget everything in the morning, and you can go on with your life in peace.

Goodbye, my daughter. I love you and your mother so much. Maybe in another life, we would meet again, and by that time, I would be a better father and husband.

One last thing.

If you do intend to follow my footsteps...

If you do want to pursue a life researching the occult, then please, I beg you.

Find Yukari Yakumo and tell her I said hi.

* * *

A/N:

First off, Happy New Year! I can't believe a decade just ended and another one is about to start!

Anyways, this story is my take on Maribel Hearn's backstory as well as trying to tie it up with the lore of Imperfect Metamorphosis (again this is unofficial).

Fun fact, ZUN actually said in some interview that the connection between Yukari and Maribel was an American writer from the 19th century called Lafcadio **Hearn** who later became a Japanese citizen with the name Koizumi **Yakumo**. I was actually mind-blown when I read this fact because it could mean that Maribel Hearn might be a direct descendent of Yukari. If we assume Lafcadio's Japanese wife was actually a disguised Yukari, then that could actually explain why Maribel has such an affinity with her.

This was how I thought the story out. Maribel is a direct descendant of Lafcadio Hearn, but I'm not saying she's also a direct descendant of Yukari. I don't really know how to work it into the story so for now, I'm leaving in vague for anyone to speculate.

Lastly, on a personal note, I find it really great to finally complete a promise even if it was in hiatus for years. Imperfect Metamorphosis is such a great inspiration for me. It is one of the major literary works that I keep on coming back for more inspiration. If it wasn't for Takerfoxx' work, I might not have a bar to set myself up as I pursue my passion for writing.

Until next time everyone!

* * *

Originally published on: Jan. 1, 2020.


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